


Fashionably Hate

by bluemandycat



Category: Archvillain Series - Barry Lyga
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Party
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-21 15:35:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6056910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemandycat/pseuds/bluemandycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This party can't possibly get any worse. Oh, wait, yes it can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey what's up it's me getting another fanfic out of my system enjoy it i guess.

Kyle was bored. Like, really bored. Like, so bored he was halfway considering walking home, grabbing a laser (which he was pretty proud of making), and shooting up the party just to inject a little excitement into the night. However, knowing his luck, people would just interpret the lasers as a cool DJ effect, and the party would get even bigger and louder and bore him even more. If that was even possible.

 

            He knew, logically, that he shouldn’t have taken Mairi up on attending the party. He knew he was going to feel like this when he got here. But Mairi was always so concerned about him and his social life. “Kyle, you have to get out of that stuffy lab and make some friends!” she had said. “You’re not going to look back on college fondly if you don’t go to a party once and a while!” (Even though Kyle was planning on making his college years the second section on his future Wikipedia page, right between ‘Early Life’ and ‘Rise to Fame.’ He didn’t need to view a stepping-stone fondly). But, he cared about Mairi, and he cared when she cared about him, so he had decided to go. Which he was now, admittedly, kind of regretting.

 

            A large part of the regret had to do with the fact that he could easily be working on the Erasmus Project for his Honors thesis, and he was so _close_ to a breakthrough. But he had figured that the field of robotics could delay being revolutionized for one night, and he would talk to his advisor during the week and get an extension, or something. He had looked forward to a night of hanging out with Mairi, socializing a little bit, and maybe flirting and maybe scoring, if he was lucky. But Mairi was across the room, talking with a boy with brown hair who was maybe named Doug, and who Kyle had once taken an English class with. Kyle couldn’t tell if she was flirting or just energetically talking about anime, but judging from their expressions, the conversation was going well. Good for her that she was having fun, but honestly Kyle was pretty disappointed. He felt like suing the inventor of parties. Or suing the person throwing the party. Whatever.

 

            Kyle lounged in the corner, holding a red solo cup (way to be stereotypical, Kyle) full of beer, generally feeling out of place. He was just contemplating sticking in his earbuds and zoning out to the sound of Jonathan Coulton, when he felt an arm around his shoulders.

 

            “Hey, hot stuff. You come here often?” said Mairi with a grin. Next to her, looking kind of embarrassed, was Doug. Kyle laughed and pushed her arm off.

 

            “That’s creepy. I didn’t even see you coming towards me, and I’m in a corner.”

 

            Mairi laughed. “Well, you know what they call me.” She lowered her voice. “Mairi Mactaggert, master of mystery.” She turned her head towards Doug. “Oh, Kyle, this is Doug. He’s a Creative Writing major. We’re in the same writing class.” Doug nodded at Kyle. Kyle sized him up. Light brown hair, a little taller than him, and he looked like kind of a hipster. So in other words, the anti-Kyle.

 

            All three of them stared at each other, until Doug looked down at his cup. “Oh, damn. I’m going to go get a refill, okay?” Kyle nodded, not wanting to let this guy know that he had no concern for what he was doing at all.

 

            As Doug walked away, Kyle leaned close to Mairi. “So if you stay the night with him, how am I getting home?”

 

            Mairi snorted and pushed him away. “Doug’s gay, dude. I thought you recognized that.”

 

            “Oh, trying to set me up, are you?”

 

            Mairi rolled her eyes. “A little bit.”

 

            “Well, it is not going to work. His hair isn’t nearly blonde enough.”

 

            “Oh, I was hoping you couldn’t tell because of the darkness, but I see now that it was futile to have ever thought of pulling one over on the great Kyle Camden.” Mairi raised her hand to her forhead in mock distress, but when Kyle shot her a look, she giggled. “Okay, Kyle, but you need even something vaguely resembling a romantic life. Bad enough that you only came to this party because you can’t say no to me.”

 

            “I can too say no to you! And I don’t need a relationship! I’m doing just fine by myself.”

 

            Mairi rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t aware that holing yourself up working on Erasmus and mumbling your name to the Starbucks barista and then getting mad when they spell your name wrong counted as ‘fine.’” Kyle felt personally attacked. But before he could formulate a rebuttal that would make him not seem like a hopeless loser, Mairi touched his shoulder. “Hold on, Kyle,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She walked away, towards the center of the room where a small crowd was forming.

 

            Kyle stood on his tiptoes, trying to see what was attracting people. He wondered vaguely if Doug had humiliated himself, and pondered the moral implications of the fact that he found that funny, but his thoughts were quickly cut short as the crowd parted and he saw whom it was.

 

            In all his years in college, he had never met the campus’ esteemed resident superhero, even though they were the same age. He had seen him a couple times, at university functions and on the news, but had never taken a class with him. “Mighty Mike” was what everyone called him, usually in hushed whispers, in the context of _You’ll never guess who he saved!_ or _God, isn’t he just the dreamiest?_ This was a large contributor to Kyle’s general disdain and subsequent avoiding. He hated blind admiration.

 

            And yet, here he was, in the mighty flesh. He didn’t look like much of a superhero, honestly. He was dressed casually, with his blonde hair a tiny bit mussed, but his bulky form let on that he worked out, and enjoyed it, which Kyle didn’t even know was possible. He was surrounded by a crowd of admirers, and seemed to be having a fun time being as sociable as possible. Kyle hated him even more, and he clenched his cup so hard a little bit of beer spilled over the top.

 

            As Kyle watched from safely inside the corner, Mairi walked up to the superhero, and started talking to him. _Mairi, no,_ thought Kyle. As he watched them talk, Mairi caught him staring at them, and winked. _Mairi, please don’t,_ he thought again, but it was too late. Mairi and Mighty Mike were already headed towards him.

 

            “—of course, it’s all purely theoretical, but I’m just saying it would work,” Mairi was saying as she and Mighty Mike approached Kyle. Her eyes lit up when she saw Kyle paying attention to their arrival. Kyle shot her a _why do you do this to me?_ look. She shot him back a _play nice_ look, and then smiled. “Kyle, have you met—“

 

            “Mighty Mike,” Kyle interrupted her, with a cool tone of voice. “I’ve heard about you.”

 

            “All good things, I hope,” said Mike in an impossibly smooth tone. “But please, just call me Mike.”

 

            Mairi cleared her throat, and went back to introductions. “Mike, this is Kyle. Kyle Camden. He’s my best friend.”

 

            Mike’s eyes widened. “Wait, Kyle Camden? The robotics student?”

 

            Wait, what? “You know me?”

 

            “I take an engineering class with a professor that will not shut up about the genius robotics student that he’s advising. Something about a laser?”

 

            “I figured out how to weaponize one in a practical way.” By blasting a hole through his wall, but he’s not going to tell Mike that.

 

            “Hey, that’s pretty cool. You made a lot of sci-fi fan’s dreams a reality.” _And Mike doesn’t even know about Project Erasmus, which makes the laser look like Jar Jar Binks in comparison to its Han Solo._

 

            Mairi said something about checking up on Doug, and quickly made her escape. Kyle was a little bit relieved to see her go, because that meant he could be as rude as he wanted to Mike without feeling like he was being judged for it. But before he could formulate the perfect insult, Mike spoke up.

 

            “So, you look nice,” he said. It was an innocent comment, but it caught Kyle off guard, especially as his outfit was nowhere near nice. Mairi had insisted he wear something a little better than his normal t-shirt, but somehow Kyle didn’t think that the pullover-sweater-over-collared-shirt look, paired with messy hair that didn’t look like Mike’s artistically mussed hair at all, was really doing him any favors. So, Mike had obviously meant it as a dig.

 

            Kyle looked him square in the eye. He had never thought he’d willingly say this, but—“Enough talking about me,” he said. “Why are you here?”

 

            “At this party, you mean? Same reason everyone else is here. I thought I’d get in a little bit of social interaction, maybe score with someone hot if I got lucky. Of course, I just came from patrolling, so I’m ‘fashionably late,’ as they say.”

 

            Kyle gritted his teeth. _More like fashionably hate!_ he thought. _Fashionable hate. Fashionably hated. Whatever._ He covered the disgusted face he made by taking a sip of his drink, but Mike saw his expression and grinned.

 

            “You look kind of uncomfortable. Why, are you not having fun? Or are you uncomfortable because I mentioned scoring?”

 

            “I kind of wish I hadn’t come to this party. Plus, there’s a superhero, who, despite having roaring crowds hanging onto his every word, has deigned to talk about ‘scoring’ to Kyle Camden, alleged robotics genius and the one person on campus who isn’t competing to sleep with him. It makes me feel like a bit of a charity case.”

 

            Mike’s grin widened, for reasons unknown to Kyle. “So if you’re not competing to sleep with me, then what are you doing? On the off chance that you had a chance?”

 

            Kyle clenched his fist at his arrogance, but decided to play along. “I’d say that I’m not the type of person to follow your every move, but if it was offered I wouldn’t outright say no. I’d consider my options, and then say no.” Mike laughed. Kyle growled. “Why do you not take offense at anything I say? I’m trying to communicate that you annoy me but you’re not even fazed! What’s wrong with you?”

 

            Mike’s eyes widened and his grin faded a little bit. “I’m sorry, it’s just that you’re really funny. That’s all, I swear. That’s why I laughed. Not out of malice or anything.” He was playing the wide-eyed innocent superhero angle again. Unbelievably, Kyle found himself wishing he’d go back to being flirty. At least then he wouldn’t be pretending. “I’m sorry you’re not having fun here. I’d offer you a ride home, but I just got here.”

 

            “It’s alright. Unbelievably, this is the most interesting thing that has happened to me all evening.”

 

            Mike smiled. “I’m flattered.”

 

            “I was more thinking of it in a ‘how have I sunk this low’ way.”

 

            “Hey, I’ll take it. Coming from someone like you, that’s a compliment.”

 

            “What do you mean, someone like me?” Kyle asked, but someone called to Mike, and this was evidently very important, because Mike looked over his shoulder like he was about to go.

 

            “I have to go talk to Luke, but this conversation isn’t over. I definitely want to see your cute face again before the evening is out. See ya later,” and with that, Mike walked towards someone across the room, leaving Kyle a little stunned and unsure whether to be angry or attracted to his forwardness.

 

            Mairi noticed Mike leave, and gave Kyle a thumbs up from across the room, and mouthed, “Get it.” Kyle furrowed his brow and put his earbuds in, turning on a Belle and Sebastian song.

 

            Maybe he would give the party a second chance.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Monday after the party, Kyle visits his lab to work on Erasmus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I caved. Enjoy a copious amount of nerdy Jack Stanley.

            The next Monday, after class, Kyle did what he always did when he was stressed: he paid a visit to his lab in the engineering building. Granted, he went there every day, which in hindsight couldn’t bode well for his mental health, but the lab made him feel good and happy after a long day, which is seriously what he needed after the weekend.

 

            Nothing really had happened at the party, honestly. Mike had left with his friend Luke, and Kyle had lazed around and listened to music until it was time to go. It was so underwhelming that Kyle was considering never ever going to a party ever again. Mairi would just have to find some other way to convince him to be social.

 

            But all of that was in the past now. All that mattered was that classes were over and he was on the second floor of the engineering and computer science building and the door to the lab was propped open and inviting him in. With the time he lost by not working on Erasmus over the weekend, he was going to have to pull double-time today to get back up to speed, but that didn’t really bother him.

            Inside the lab, he walked to room 210-C near the back, fumbled for his key, and let himself in. The room was divided into two parts by a screen, with one side a complete mess of parts with a computer with the screensaver running, and the other side pretty neat, with notebooks and parts stacked evenly on and around the workbench. Kyle plopped down on the neat side, and made a mental note to file a complaint about his cubicle-mate’s messiness, if only because, once again, his neighbor’s robot had made it’s way over to Kyle’s side of the room.

 

            On top of his blue journal was a note, written in black sharpie, from his neighbor. Kyle picked it up, wondering what it could be this time.

 

            _Dear Kyle Ren,_ the note read, followed by a pretty impressive drawing of Adam Driver’s face. _How was your weekend? Bet you didn’t get anything done at all. That’s okay, you work yourself to death anyways ;). Lundergaard wants to meet with you and chat about Erasmus. Same old, same old (if he calls me Jackie-boy again, I want you to yell at him). I left to go get coffee, so when I come back I want a full report of what that dumb party was like. See you in like, ten minutes (hopefully you’ll be there when I get back. If not, this note will look pretty dumb). Love, Jack Jack Binks._

Kyle rolled his eyes at Jack’s note. He tore a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote a quick reply.

 

            _Dear Sith Lord Jack Jack, First of all, party was weird. I’ll fill you in when I get back from talking with Lundergaard (and NO, I will not yell at him for you. Fight your own battles). Second, PLEASE stop leaving Ultitron lying around on my side. I don’t believe that he walked there by himself, considering he was turned off. Next time I catch that robot on my side, it’s into the garbage chute, flyboy, developing sentience be damned. Love, Kyle Ren. P.S. I’m going to steal your coffee, I’m extremely exhausted from the party 2 days ago._

            Kyle taped the note to Jack’s desk, got up and walked out of his cubicle, to a room at the end of the labs. The plaque next to the door read _210-L_ , and then in slightly smaller letters under it, _Dr. Walter Lundergaard, Engineering Chair_. Kyle knocked, and when he heard the word, he walked in.

 

            Dr. Lundergaard looked up from his computer. “Ah, Kyle. How was your weekend?”

 

            “Fine, I guess. I went to a party with a friend.” Kyle took a seat.

 

            “That’s good, very good. It’s good to get out of the lab once and a while.”

 

            “But I didn’t get as much work done over the weekend as I wanted to.”

 

            “Kyle, you’re not supposed to be doing any weekend work at all. It’s okay that you didn’t get anything done. I’m proud of you for making an effort to be social.” Kyle rolled his eyes. Lundergaard had a tendency to try to be a father figure. “In fact, sometimes I worry that you’re wasting your college years working so hard on—”

 

            Kyle coughed. He got enough of that from Mairi. Lundergaard stopped and laughed. “Oh, sorry, was I being too much of a ‘dad’?” Kyle nodded. “Well, then, let’s talk about Erasmus. How is he going?”

 

            Kyle groaned. “I’m so close! That’s the worst part! I feel like everything should be working, but it’s not! Erasmus can’t live another day because I can’t figure out what’s wrong!”

 

            “Kyle, calm down. Even if you’re right, and a consciousness is waiting to be unlocked through your invention, I’m sure that he’s willing to be patient with you. If he exists.”

 

            “You’re willing to be patient with me. Because you’re alive and not dependent on my success. And I’m right about the consciousness thing.”

 

            Dr. Lundergaard exhaled. “Well, let’s tackle the mechanical part of it before we get existential about the possible soul of a robot. Let me see your plans.”

 

            They talked for an hour about Erasmus, and Kyle made several mental revisions to his schematic. As they were wrapping up their conversation, a thought occurred. “Hey, do you have a class with a Mighty Mike?”

 

            Lundergaard stroked his chin. “The superhero? Yes, I have an elementary engineering class with him. He’s a good kid. You’d expect him to be a meathead, with his line of work, but he’s actually doing well in my class. Why?”

 

            “I met him at the party, and he said that you talk about me a lot to your students. Is that true?”

 

            “Well…I don’t know about a lot. I’ve mentioned you, and your work, for sure. You’re my favorite student, so I would naturally want to use you as an example.”

 

            “Aww, I’m your favorite student? What would Jack say?” Kyle teased.

 

            “Favorite undergrad. Jackie-boy’s my favorite grad student,” Lundergaard hastily corrected.

 

            “You know, he hates it when you call him that.”

 

            “I know, but he has a big ego, so it’s fun to take him down a peg or two.”

 

            Kyle laughed, thanked Dr. Lundergaard, and walked back to his cubicle. Before he could make it inside, he ran into someone quite a bit taller than him.

 

            “Hey, Kyle-y,” said Jack, holding two cups of coffee.

 

            “If you start calling me that, I’ll start calling you Jackie-boy, and between me and Lundergaard we can start a revolution,” Kyle said, and reached for one of the coffees. Jack held the other one out to him.

 

            “Got back from getting coffee, saw your note, and turned around and got another one. A ridiculous amount of cream and sugar, just like you like it. You’re welcome.”

 

            Kyle rolled his eyes and took a sip. He’d been friends with Jack for three years, and ever since he had found out about his coffee preference (as sugary and far from coffee as possible), he had never stopped teasing him. “So, what’d you do over the weekend?” he asked conversationally.

 

            “Lazed around, mostly. And then, last night, inspiration struck, and I pulled an all-nighter coding. That’s why I needed the coffee.” Kyle sighed. Jack was famous for not understanding any aspect of programming, and then magically understanding everything and burning himself out programming something brilliant.

 

            “So, what’d you make?”

 

            “Check this out.” He darted into the cubicle and grabbed Ultitron from where he was lying on the floor.

 

            “Oh yeah, please stop leaving Ultitron on my side. I don’t care if you like pretending he’s a killer robot stomping around and destroying things. Keep him on your side.”

 

            “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack said carefully. He switched Ultitron on and set him on the floor. “Yo, Ulti!” The robot’s head swiveled to look at him. “Walk to Kyle.” Ultitron made small baby steps over to Kyle.

 

            Kyle didn’t get it. “So, what’s new? He’s been able to recognize his own name and remember people for ages.”

 

            “Put your hand up,” said Jack, looking excited.

 

            Kyle raised his hand, feeling kinda stupid. Ultitron smacked it, like he was giving a high-five. “Woah!” said Kyle, kind of impressed.

 

            “That’s not all,” said Jack proudly. He took his keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Kyle. “Hold them out.”

 

            Kyle did, and Ultitron’s tiny hands grabbed them. He turned them over in his hands, possibly studying them (Kyle wasn’t honestly sure if he was sentient or not. He wouldn’t put it past Jack to accidentally give the robot emotions during a programming binge). “Wow,” Kyle said. “Can this robot get any more like a toddler?”

 

            Jack snorted. “You leave my robot son out of this.” He called for Ultitron, and when the robot toddled over to him, picked him up and took the keys. He balanced Ultitron on his hip, which made the robot look even more like a toddler. “C’mon. Let’s go science for two hours together.”

 

            Kyle was about to nod in affirmation when he felt a tap on his shoulder, followed by a “Hey, nerd.”

 

            “Hey Mairi. Thought you said that the lab made you feel like you had to stop the robot revolution in the making,” Kyle said, a little annoyed at the interruption.

 

            “Well, I’m braving the impending apocalypse to check up on you. I have class in twenty minutes, but I figured that now is as good a time as any to talk about the party.”

 

            “Hi, Mairi,” Jack said. Mairi ignored him.

 

            “So. Whatever happened with your unresolved sexual tension with him?”

 

            Jack grinned. “Wait, unresolved sexual tension? Kyle had sexual tension with someone? For real? I’ve got to hear this story.”

 

            Mairi looked over, as if noticing him for the first time. “Oh, hey, Jack. And Ultitron, I assume.” Ultitron turned to look at her at the sound of his name. She shivered. “Yeah, at this party over the weekend, you’ll never guess who came over and flirted with our friend here.”

 

            Jack leaned close. “Who?”

 

            “Mighty Mike. The superhero. He wanted to talk to Kyle about his inventions. C’mon. Who wants talk about inventions with Kyle if they’re not trying to sleep with him?”

 

            Kyle huffed. “Jack talks with me about my inventions. And he’s not trying to sleep with me.” After a pause, he added, “I think.” Jack winked at him. “Anyways, nothing happened. He made a vague reference to sleeping with me, called me cute, then left with a friend. Not exactly the most romantic encounter.”

 

            Mairi grabbed his arm in excitement. “Hey, I’ll take it. It’s a step up from having no romantic life at all. So have you talked to him at all?”

 

            “No, we’re not friends! He’s just some weirdo who hit on me at a party.” Kyle wondered why this was such a big deal to Mairi.

 

            Jack grabbed his other arm with his free hand. “A _super_ weirdo.”

 

            Mairi hugged his arm tighter. “A _super hot_ weirdo.”

 

            Kyle struggled against his friends. “Come on, you guys. I’m probably never going to talk to him again. He probably doesn’t remember me.”

 

            “You never know,” said Mairi, dropping his arm. Jack did the same. “Something might happen.”

 

            Kyle snorted. “Yeah, right. The only ‘something’ that’s happening is Jack and I working on our robots for two hours.” To prove his point, he linked his arm with Jack’s free arm. Ultitron noticed and reached out a tiny hand towards Kyle.

 

            “Okay, fine, Kyle,” said Mairi, crossing her arms and turning to leave. “I’ll see you around. But never say never.”

 

            Kyle said goodbye to Mairi, and he and Jack walked back to their cubicle, still linking arms, together. Kyle listened to Jack chatter excitedly about how next he was going to program Ultitron to perform basic tasks and then he was going to teach him how to love, and wondered whether his life could get any more chaotic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me how it was maybe.  
> Follow me at @archvillain-fandom on tumblr (good, pure posts) or @bluemandycat on twitter (sinful and Bad posts) for more content like this.

**Author's Note:**

> Would possibly do a second chapter if people like this, so let me know through comments/kudos!


End file.
